Stories about: Critical Systems

Whom can you trust? In security, many of us nurture a healthy sense of paranoia and tend to be distrustful. But as human beings, as social beings, we form bonds of trust with those around us.

As Hurricane Gustav approaches the US Gulf Coast, the IT lessons learned from the devastating Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that smashed New Orleans and other areas in 2005 are on the minds of many worried IT managers.

Think your security staffers are trustworthy? Competent? Knowledgeable? Ask a security professional for horror stories and you might think again.

Computerworld is undertaking a series of investigations into the most widely-used programming languages. Previously we have spoken to Alfred v. Aho of AWK fame, S. Tucker Taft on the Ada 1995 and 2005 revisions, Microsoft about its server-side script engine ASP, and Chet Ramey about his experience maintaining Bash. We have also spoken to Charles H. Moore about Forth. In this interview, we chat to Bjarne Stroustrup of C++ fame about the design and development of C++, garbage collection and the role of facial hair in successful programming languages.

Tresys Technology has released a desktop virtualization platform with a difference - it is designed from the ground up for organizations needing tight security, including military bodies.

Computerworld is undertaking a series of investigations into the most widely-used programming languages. Previously, we have spoken to Alfred v. Aho of AWK fame, and Chet Ramey about his experience maintaining Bash. In this article, we chat to S. Tucker Taft, Chairman and CTO of SofCheck. Taft has been heavily involved in the Ada 1995 and 2005 revisions, and still works with the language today as both a designer and user.

Joseph Powell first suspected that there were problems with his IT contractor when the admin refused to cede his administrative rights on an accounting software package. Powell, who was the business administrator for a private school, began noticing more issues. When the school's board ordered the IT admin to cede control of the software, he began introducing deliberate errors into the school's database. "We also began to experience costly downtime on the network coinciding with any time [he] was unhappy with how he was treated by the administration," Powell says.

A flood of voracious ants is heading straight for Houston, taking out computers, radios and even vehicles in their path.

The kernel developers are generally quite good about responding to security problems. Once a vulnerability in the kernel has been found, a patch comes out in short order; system administrators can then apply the patch (or get a patched kernel from their distributor), reboot the system, and get on with life knowing that the vulnerability has been fixed. It is a system which works pretty well.

Cox Communications employee William Bryant recently pleaded guilty to information technology sabotage, having caused the loss of computer, telecommunications and emergency 911 services for thousands of Cox's business and residential customers throughout Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge . Bryant faces a 10-year jail sentence and a US$250,000 fine, but the future is less certain for Cox. Although services were fully restored, the incident's effect on Cox's reputation has yet to be determined.

Flynn Maloy is starting to spend a lot less time explaining to customers why system downtime is like an iceberg.